HARTFORD — With less than two weeks remaining before the election, the two major candidates for governor are spending money at a blistering pace.

The most recent campaign finance reports, filed Thursday, show that Republican business executive Tom Foley's campaign spent nearly $2.3 million in the first 21 days of October. More than $2 million of that total was spent on television advertising and production costs.

In the same 21-day period, the campaign of Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy spent $1.2 million. That included more than $1 million for television and radio advertisements, along with salaries for campaign workers and other items.

Malloy spent $21,750 for polling by the Global Strategy Group, where longtime Malloy strategist Roy Occhiogrosso is a managing director.

Out of a campaign treasury of $6.7 million, Malloy has spent $5.6 million and has $1.1 million on hand, according to public records filed Thursday.

Foley's campaign has spent $6.2 million so far out of an overall campaign treasury of $8.2 million, leaving nearly $2 million in cash on hand as of Tuesday, which was the cutoff date for the Thursday filing. The total included $41,419 for polling by the Tarrance Group of Alexandria, Va.

Foley's total of $8.2 million is an aggregate number that includes $1.35 million in public financing from his primary campaign. Both candidates receive the same amount — $6.5 million in public funds — for the general election campaign.

The third candidate for governor, Joseph Visconti of West Hartford, is not receiving any public funds. His latest filings show that his campaign had raised $7,321.93 but had spent $8,602.06. As a result, the campaign had no cash on hand but instead owed $1,280, according to the public filings.

Malloy and Foley are locked in a dead-heat campaign, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Malloy had the support of 43 percent of those surveyed, while Foley had 42 percent in a poll that has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Visconti, who gathered enough signatures to gain a spot on the ballot, was in third place with 9 percent.

Outside spending in the gubernatorial race has exceeded $10 million as special interest groups look to sway the outcome of the Nov. 4. election.

Republican challenger Tom Foley is running for the second time against Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy, who won in 2010 by fewer than 6,500 votes....

(JENNY WILSON)

Besides the campaigns, much of the money being spent during the race is by two SuperPACs that are making independent expenditures.

The latest filings show that the Republican Governors Association has spent $4.88 million on the race as the largest single contributor to Grow Connecticut Inc., a SuperPAC that supports Foley and opposes Malloy. The group has only two other contributors — with $660,000 from a conservative group known as Citizens for a Sound Government of Colorado and $25,000 from Republican Craig R. Stapleton, a former U.S. ambassador to France and a close friend of Foley's from Greenwich.

The Democratic Governors Association is the largest single contributor, at $2.45 million, to a SuperPAC known as Connecticut Forward, which supports Malloy and opposes Foley. The group's latest contribution was $200,000 on Tuesday, based on the latest public filing. Four unions have also contributed a combined total of about $2 million to the SuperPAC.